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Junior Wells (December 9, 1932 – January 15, 1998), born Amos Blakemore, was a blues vocalist and harmonica
Harmonica

The harmonica is a free reed aerophone wind instrument which is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes....
 player based in Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
 who was famous for playing with Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the Father of Chicago blues"....
, Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy is a five-time Grammy Award-winning United States blues and rock music guitarist and singer. Known as an inspiration to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and other guitarists, Guy is considered an important exponent of Chicago blues....
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter who was born in Burbank, Los Angeles County, California, California. Raitt is best known for her songs "Nick of Time ", "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneaking Up on You", and the ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me." Raitt is also an avid political activist and has received nine Gra...
, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison
Van Morrison

George Ivan Morrison Order of the British Empire is a Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, author, poet and multi-instrumentalist, who has been a professional musician since the late 1950s....
 among others.

as born in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River ....
, and raised in Arkansas
Arkansas

Arkansas is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States of the United States. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River....
. Initially influenced by fellow Memphian Junior Parker
Junior Parker

Junior Parker, also known as Little Junior Parker or "Mr Blues" was a successful and influential Memphis blues singer and musician....
, and both Sonny Boy Williamson
Sonny Boy Williamson

Sonny Boy Williamson may refer to either of two 20th-century American blues harmonica players:*Sonny Boy Williamson I , John Lee Curtis Williamson, "The Original Sonny Boy Williamson", born in Tennessee and associated with Bluebird Records and pre-war blues...
s, Wells moved to Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
 in 1948 and began sitting in with local musicians at house parties and taverns.






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Junior Wells (December 9, 1932 – January 15, 1998), born Amos Blakemore, was a blues vocalist and harmonica
Harmonica

The harmonica is a free reed aerophone wind instrument which is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes....
 player based in Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
 who was famous for playing with Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the Father of Chicago blues"....
, Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy is a five-time Grammy Award-winning United States blues and rock music guitarist and singer. Known as an inspiration to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and other guitarists, Guy is considered an important exponent of Chicago blues....
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter who was born in Burbank, Los Angeles County, California, California. Raitt is best known for her songs "Nick of Time ", "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneaking Up on You", and the ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me." Raitt is also an avid political activist and has received nine Gra...
, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison
Van Morrison

George Ivan Morrison Order of the British Empire is a Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, author, poet and multi-instrumentalist, who has been a professional musician since the late 1950s....
 among others.

Life and career

He was born in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River ....
, and raised in Arkansas
Arkansas

Arkansas is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States of the United States. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River....
. Initially influenced by fellow Memphian Junior Parker
Junior Parker

Junior Parker, also known as Little Junior Parker or "Mr Blues" was a successful and influential Memphis blues singer and musician....
, and both Sonny Boy Williamson
Sonny Boy Williamson

Sonny Boy Williamson may refer to either of two 20th-century American blues harmonica players:*Sonny Boy Williamson I , John Lee Curtis Williamson, "The Original Sonny Boy Williamson", born in Tennessee and associated with Bluebird Records and pre-war blues...
s, Wells moved to Chicago
Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States, as well as the List of United States cities by population city in the United States with more than 2.8 million residents....
 in 1948 and began sitting in with local musicians at house parties and taverns. He began performing with The Aces (guitarist brothers Dave and Louis Myers and drummer Fred Below) and developed a more modern amplified harmonica style influenced by Little Walter
Little Walter

Little Walter was a blues singer, harmonica player, and guitarist.Jacobs is generally included among blues music greats?his revolutionary harmonica technique has earned comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix in its impact....
. He made his first recordings at age 18, when he briefly replaced Little Walter
Little Walter

Little Walter was a blues singer, harmonica player, and guitarist.Jacobs is generally included among blues music greats?his revolutionary harmonica technique has earned comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix in its impact....
 in Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the Father of Chicago blues"....
' band and appeared on one of Muddy's sessions in 1952. His first recordings as a band leader were made in the following year for States Records; in the later '50s and early '60s he also recorded singles for other local Chicago labels. He worked with Buddy Guy in the 1960s and recorded his first album for Delmark Records
Delmark Records

Delmark Records is one of the oldest independent record label in the United States. It records jazz and blues and is one of jazz's best-known imprints....
. His most memorable songs are "Messin' With The Kid
Messin' With The Kid

"Messin' With The Kid" is a 1960 American blues song originally recorded by Junior Wells and credited to songwriter/producer Mel London. It subsequently became a signature tune for Wells....
" and "Little by Little," which were written and composed by Chicago blues producer Mel London
Mel London

Mel London born Melvin London, was a producer, songwriter, and composer who was born in 1932 in Mississippi, and died in Chicago in 1975 at the early age of 43....
. His best-known album is 1965's Hoodoo Man Blues
Hoodoo Man Blues

Hoodoo Man Blues is the 1965 debut album of blues singer and harmonica player Junior Wells, performing with the Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band, an early collaboration with Grammy Award-winning artist Buddy Guy....
 on Delmark Records
Delmark Records

Delmark Records is one of the oldest independent record label in the United States. It records jazz and blues and is one of jazz's best-known imprints....
, which featured Buddy Guy on guitar and evokes the smoky atmosphere of the era's Westside Chicago blues bars.

Wells made an appearance in the 1998 movie Blues Brothers 2000
Blues Brothers 2000

Blues Brothers 2000 is a 1998 in film Musical film/comedy film and sequel to the 1980 in film film The Blues Brothers . Directed by John Landis, the film featured Dan Aykroyd and John Goodman, with Cameo appearance by many musicians....
, the sequel to The Blues Brothers. The movie was released less than a month after his death.

Wells was interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago after succumbing to lymphoma
Lymphoma

Lymphoma is a type of cancer that originates in lymphocytes of the immune system. They often originate in lymph nodes, presenting as an enlargement of the node ....
 in 1998.

Album discography

  • Hoodoo Man Blues
    Hoodoo Man Blues

    Hoodoo Man Blues is the 1965 debut album of blues singer and harmonica player Junior Wells, performing with the Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band, an early collaboration with Grammy Award-winning artist Buddy Guy....
     † (1965)
  • It's My Life, Baby! † (1966)
  • Chicago/The Blues/Today! vol. 1 † (1966)
  • On Tap (1974)
  • You're Tuff Enough (1968)
  • Coming at You † (1968)
  • Live at the Golden Bear (1969)
  • Southside Blues Jam † (1969)
  • Buddy and the Juniors † (1970)
  • In My Younger Days (1972)
  • Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues † (1972)
  • Live At Montreux † (1977)
  • Blues Hit Big Town (1977)
  • Pleading the Blues † (1979)
  • Got To Use Your Head (1979)
  • Drinkin' TNT 'n' Smokin' Dynamite † (1982)
  • The Original Blues Brothers (1983)
  • Messin’ With The Kid, Vol 1 (1986)
  • Universal Rock (1986)
  • Chiefly Wells (1986)
  • Harp Attack! (1990)
  • 1957-1966 (1991)
  • Alone & Acoustic † (1991)
  • Undisputed Godfather of the Blues (1993)
  • Better Off with the Blues † (1993)
  • Messin’ With The Kid 1957-63 (1995)
  • Everybody's Getting' Some (1995)
  • Come on in This House (1997)
  • Live at Buddy Guy's Legends (1997)
  • Keep On Steppin’: The Best Of… (1998)
  • Best Of The Vanguard Years (1998)
  • Masters (1998)
  • Buddy Guy & Junior Wells † (1998)
  • Last Time Around –- Live at Legends (1998)
  • Junior Wells & Friends (1999)
  • Every Day I Have The Blues (2000)
  • Calling All Blues (2000)
  • Buddy Guy & Junior Wells † (2001)
  • Best Of.. (2001)
  • Live at Theresa's 1975
    Live at Theresa's 1975

    Live at Theresa's 1975 is a live album released of material recorded by Blues music vocalist and harmonica player Junior Wells. This is the first live Wells album released by Delmark Records....
     (2006)


See also

  • Chicago Blues Festival
    Chicago Blues Festival

    The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event that features four days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming....


External links